Huddersfield’s Daniel Lloyd endured a tough start to his Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship campaign last weekend, with the Yorkshireman managing to salvage just a single point from the opening rounds of the season at the Kent circuit (April 1-2).
Although disappointed with the weekend’s overall results, Lloyd showed flashes of his competitiveness during Sunday’s frenetic three races, with the MG Racing RCIB Insurance driver battling through to take his first points finish of the season in the final race of the weekend.
Challenging conditions during Saturday’s qualifying session caught out many of the 32 drivers on the grid. With two red flags and heavy downpours halting proceedings during the 30 minute session, Lloyd unfortunately found himself in the pits at the wrong time and had to settle with P25 despite being just 1 second off pole position.
A determined run by the 25-year-old in the opening race saw the MG Motor MG6 fight its way through the field up into the points in P15, before a heavy rear quarter hit on the last corner of the last lap relegated Lloyd back down into 23rd place.
The MG-factory driver followed this up with a lightening start off the grid for race 2, making up two places on the straight before the race was red-flagged. The restart did little to help Lloyd’s campaign however and further contact in the closing laps pitched the #23 MG6 into a spin, resulting in a puncture and trip to the pits. A quick turnaround by the Triple-Eight crew saw him re-join the grid and Lloyd eventually crossed the line in P23.
Race three delivered some well-deserved success with Lloyd finally able to showcase the MG’s potential pace, and a solid drive was rewarded with a P15 finish – securing his first point of the season to end the testing weekend on a positive note.
“We went into the weekend expecting it to be a challenge because he haven’t managed to get as much testing covered off as we would have liked;” said Lloyd.
“We got caught out in qualifying, along with a few others, and got the bad end of the session which set us off on the back foot. We knew it was going to be tough against such a strong grid without the outright pace, but we did a good job making up 10 places to get through to 15th in the first race before I was hit. It was just damage limitation then as I had to drag the car home in 23rd.
“I had a fantastic start in race 2, but again the luck was against us with the restart and getting turned around and the puncture was just the icing on the cake really! Thankfully race 3 turned the weekend around for us, it was the first time that we’d run the option tyre and we did a good job to come home in 15th and get into the points.
“It just wasn’t our weekend unfortunately. We learnt a lot about the car and the new tyre though and we have a lot of data to take into the next round. A shame to start the year with a tough opening round but it’s not the end of the world, or the season, there’s a long way to go yet and we’ll come back fighting at Donington Park.”
Highlights of Sunday’s three opening races are available to watch via the itv website: itv.com/btcc with a further highlights programme featuring all of the action from Brands Hatch to be shown on itv4 from 13.25-14.55 on Saturday 8th April.
The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship gets back underway with rounds 4, 5 and 6 at Donington Park in Leicestershire on April 15-16.
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